Abstract : In this analysis of early Southern Min (16th – 17th centuries), we investigate analytic causative constructions formed respectively by khit4 乞 ‘to give'; su2 使 ‘to cause, send' and su3 賜 ‘to bestow, grant' on the basis of two main historical documents, the Doctrina Christiana and the Li Jing Ji. With reference to the diachronic development and grammaticalization pathways for these verbs, it is shown that each forms different semantic types of causatives. The central issue is to explain the apparently unusual occurrence of su3 賜 as a causative verb in the Doctrina Christiana.